Detroit Free Press Columnist

Related Links

Michigan is acting like the jilted girlfriend. Hell hath no fury like a football rival scorned.

In U-M’s eyes, Notre Dame is scared. The Irish are blasphemous. They’re a traitor to storied tradition.

But if Michigan stopped sniveling long enough, it would realize that losing Notre Dame after 2014 is a blessing for a program that desperately needs a stronger Sun Belt presence. The Wolverines must have a bigger recruiting footprint in those national regions that consistently produce the best football talent — the Southeast, Texas and California.

Scheduling the occasional September road game against a quality SEC, ACC or Pac-12 opponent would accelerate the Wolverines toward that objective. I’m not so sure that playing SEC middle-of-the-pack Arkansas in 2018-19 achieves that purpose. But it’s a starting point.

Michigan should play LSU. It should play Georgia. It should play Florida State or Stanford.

Pick one. Get it done.

With a new playoff beginning next year that likely will expand in coming years, there’s no longer that hesitancy in playing a treacherous road game in the opening weeks because a single September loss shouldn’t prove fatal. A football playoff selection committee will look more favorably upon those teams willing to play tougher nonconference opponents — the same as the NCAA basketball tournament selection committee.

But right now Michigan is ticked off at Notre Dame because the Irish spurning the Big Ten for the ACC is an admission of the harsh realities of modern championship college football. Michigan thought it had a loyal partner in Notre Dame, two traditional Midwestern brands that stood together against the rising tide of relevant football redistricted to the south and west.

But Notre Dame basically said it doesn’t need Michigan. There’s little far-reaching value in playing the Wolverines regularly. And that hurt Michigan’s feelings.

Notre Dame is smart. It knows that scheduling five ACC opponents every year guarantees the Irish regular visits to the talent-rich states of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia, as well as their annual trip to California to play USC or Stanford.

Notre Dame is separating itself from Michigan, forcing the Wolverines to take a more critical look at its nonconference choices. That should help them once they stop pouting.

With Notre Dame off the books following next season, the Wolverines are left standing with Utah, Oregon State, UNLV and Brigham Young on the September docket in 2015. Contracts for these games usually are signed several years before they’re played. But if there’s an escape clause, Michigan should consider it.

Can you imagine how huge a national attraction it would be having a strong SEC team or USC coming to Ann Arbor?

It would dwarf the manufactured national importance of Notre Dame vs. Michigan, an encounter that generally appeals more to the blue hairs and graybeards fondly remembering the days when only two games were televised nationally every weekend.

Ohio State recently scheduled Texas and USC during a four-year period. Michigan State is getting a home-and-home series with Alabama and Oregon.